2030 GMT: Explosions. The head of Kurdistan police reports that two bombs have gone off in Sanandaj. There are no casualties.
1845 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. An Ahwazi Arab activist site is claiming that a 37 year-old man, Abdulrahman Ghasem Badawi, was slain on Thursday night at a checkpoint 20 km (12.5 miles) outside Ahwaz.
2140 GMT: The Ahwaz Day of Rage. Activists in Ahwaz claimed at least nine protesters have died, scores have been injured, and hundreds have been detained by security services this week.
2130 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Foad Sojoudi-Farimani has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sojoudi-Farimani was arrested on 13 September 2010. After 45 days, he was released on $500,000 bail, but he was barred from pursuing his postgraduate education.
2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Two supporters of the Laleh Park Mothers of Mourning, Jila Karamzadeh and Laila Saifollahi, have each been sentenced to four years in prison.
1710 GMT: The President's Former Right-Hand Man. A bit more context on the battle around controversial Ahmadinejad ally and advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who officially left as Chief of Staff today....
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, considered a spiritual advisor to Ahmadinejad, reportedly launched a furious attack on Rahim-Mashai. The cleric said the "fitna" (sedition) of 2009 around the Presidential election had ended, but now there was a new fitna on higher level.
And what could that challenge be? In a reference to Rahim-Mashai's promotion of an "Iranian model" for other countries to follow, Mesbah Yazdi asked, "Why replace Islam and Revolution with an Iran School?"
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 15:23